Recent Birth Control Pill Use May Be Linked With Increased Risk for Breast Cancer

If you've taken birth control pills in the past year, you may be at a 50 percent increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study—and the types of pills you've taken may have something to do with that.

A new study suggests that women who have been taking higher-estrogen birth control pills during the last year are at an especially increased risk for breast cancer, while women who had been on high-estrogen pills before (but went off of them before the study was conducted) and women on pills with lower dosages of estrogen were not at increased risk.

So what kind of pills clock in as "high-dose estrogen"? Those containing 50 micrograms ethinyl estradiol or 80 micrograms mestranol; also triphasic combination pills with .75 milligrams of norethindrone.

The results of this study are still preliminary, and there's still research to be done...but, for now, many experts still believe the possible upsides of birth control pills outweigh the possible downsides.